Titan Arum Blooms at OSU

The Titan Arum at Ohio State University bloomed about two hours ago. It is a huge perfect specimen of the largest flower in the world. It is also among the most stinky flowers in the world. Its common name is the corpse flower.

Rob's Newest Titan Arum

Rob’s Newest Titan Arum, 8 inches tall

I’ve been growing titan arums for about ten years, and have not had a bloom yet, but I keep trying. I’ve had some very nice leaves, and specimens that have grown to ten feet tall. They can take eight years to bloom, if they bloom at all. The blooms only last one day.

Amorphophallus titanum are natives of Sumatra, so Memphis Tennessee isn’t perfect for growing them. This is a picture of my newest little baby, grown from a seed harvested in Sumatra about three months ago.

And here is the flower at OSU, as of today at 3:50PM CT. Tomorrow it won’t look anything like this.

OSU's Titan Arum, "Woody"

OSU’s Titan Arum, “Woody”

 

About The Author

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Rob Cosgrove / http://remote-backup.com

Rob Cosgrove is President of Remote Backup Systems, developers of the fully brandable RBackup Online Backup software platform, powering more than 9,500 Service Providers, MSPs and VARs wordwide since 1987. He is the founder of the Online Backup industry and author of several books, the most recent, "The Online Backup Guide for Service Providers", available at Amazon.com and bookstores. http://remote-backup.com